DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

Scripture Reading: Job 1:1; 10:2b, 13; Eph. 3:9; Job 42:5-6

DAY 2 & DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 1　DAY 1　»

　　Job 10:2 I will say to God, Do not account me wicked; make known to me why You contend with me.

　　13 But You have hidden these things in Your heart; I know that this is with You.

　　Job complained that God, knowing that he was not wicked and not acquitting him of his iniquity, ill-treated him without cause on his side and attacked him again and again according to what was hidden in God’s heart (Job 10:1-17). Job said to God, “Make known to me why You contend with me” (v. 2b). In verse 13 he went on to say, “You have hidden these things in Your heart; / I know that this is with You.” This indicates that Job could not find the reason for God’s treatment of him, but he believed that there had to be some reason hidden in God’s heart. Job was right; something was hidden in God’s heart. Ephesians 3:9 tells us of the mystery hidden in God. This is the mystery of the ages. (Life-study of Job, pp. 50-51)

　　After creating man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26), God kept His intention hidden throughout the ages. Before the New Testament time He did not unveil to anyone what His purpose was (Eph. 3:4-5). (Job 10:13, footnote 1)

　　In their efforts to vindicate the authenticity of the book of Job, many readers of this book, especially among the fundamentalists and the Brethren, have emphasized certain “golden verses.” One of these verses is 19:25: “I know that my Redeemer lives, / And at the last He will stand upon the earth.” This verse conveys some amount of revelation concerning Christ, the Redeemer. Another golden verse is 42:5: “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You.” This surely is an excellent verse. However, in spite of verses such as these, the forty-two chapters in Job leave us with a crucial question of two parts: What was the purpose of God in His creating of man, and what is the purpose of God in His dealing with His chosen people? To answer this question, we need the entire Bible. In particular, the New Testament is a long answer to Job’s question.

　　Job said that he wanted to argue with God and even “litigate” with God in “court,” making himself the plaintiff and God the defendant. But Job did not have the opportunity to do this, and his question concerning his suffering remained unanswered. The New Testament is God’s answer to Job. We may say that it is a message “faxed” from God to Job. This “fax,” this answer, reveals that God was not judging Job or punishing him but was stripping and consuming him so that Job could be rebuilt with the Triune God. Although millions of people have read the New Testament, not many understand the answer that it contains. Thus, it is extremely important that we consider the vital aspects of the answer to Job revealed in the New Testament. (Life-study of Job, pp. 61-62)

　　The mystery hidden in God’s heart is God’s eternal economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), which is God’s eternal intention with His heart’s desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature that they may be the same as He is as His duplication (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2), to become an organism, the Body of Christ as the new man (Eph. 2:15-16), for God’s fullness, God’s expression (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2—22:5). Not knowing God’s intention, Job misunderstood God and thought that God was angry with him and was judging him and punishing him. God’s intention was not to judge Job or to punish him but to tear him down and then rebuild him with Himself, to make Job a new man in God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This is the answer to Job, to the book of Job, and to Job’s vindication. (Job 10:13, footnote 1)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 8, 10

«　WEEK 1　DAY 2　»

　　Eph. 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.

　　1 Tim. 1:3-4 …Charge certain ones not to teach different things nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.

　　According to Job 38:7 the angels of God (the sons of God) shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth. The angels might have wondered what God’s purpose was in creating the earth and man. Adam himself did not know why God created him in His image after His likeness (Gen. 1:26). God kept His intention hidden throughout the ages, not telling Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, or any of the prophets. The Creator did a lot in His creation, but before the New Testament time He did not unveil to anyone what His purpose was. (Life-study of Job, p. 51)

　　Job 42:7 tells us that God condemned Job’s three friends for not speaking concerning Him that which was right, as His servant Job had. Job was right in saying that his sufferings were not a matter of God’s judgment. Job felt that, according to his conscience, he had not done anything that required God to come in to judge him or to punish him. Nevertheless, he was suffering and he wanted to investigate his situation with God. Job’s three friends, however, insisted that Job’s sufferings were a proof that he had done something wrong and was being judged by God. Thus, God came in to condemn the three friends and to vindicate Job to a certain extent.

　　Job’s three friends were not right concerning God’s purpose in dealing with His people, because their concept was based on the principle of good and evil, on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the sideline alongside the tree of life as the main line.

　　Job was right because his concept in general was not based on the principle of good and evil. However, he was groping in relation to the purpose for which God deals with His people. On the negative side, he was right; on the positive side, he was devoid of the divine revelation, not knowing that God’s purpose in dealing with His people is that He wants His people to gain Him, to partake of Him, to possess Him, and to enjoy Him more and more, rather than all things, until their enjoyment reaches the fullest extent, as the divine revelation ultimately unveils in the New Testament, that His people may ultimately become the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the enlargement of God. We all will become parts of the New Jerusalem.

　　God, in His progressive revelation, did not make His purpose in dealing with His people clear to Job at his time. However, God did make this clear in the New Testament to the believers. In His reply to Job, God paid no attention to Elihu because his concept had not come up to the level of God’s ultimate standard, though it was not wrong. Elihu, a young man, thought that he was somebody, but he actually was nobody.

　　All the physical blessings with which God blessed Job were to show Job God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness in his latter days [Job 42:10-17]. This indicates that God is perfect and kind in dealing with those who love Him. Even today, after God deals with us by stripping us and consuming us, and after His purpose is accomplished, God gives us His physical blessings. However, God’s purpose in dealing with His people is not to give physical blessings to them but to give Himself to them as their eternal portion, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21——22). (Life-study of Job, pp. 158-160)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msg. 30

«　WEEK 1　DAY 3　»

　　John 10:10 …I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.

　　1 Cor. 15:45 …The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

　　Rom. 8 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

　　The Bible of sixty-six books is for only one thing: for God in Christ by the Spirit to dispense Himself into us to be our life, our nature, and our everything that we may live Christ and express Christ. This should be the principle that governs our life. In a practical way, it should be today’s tree of life for our enjoyment.

　　The Bible is not mainly a book of prophecy, teaching, or types. The Bible is a book of God’s economy. To say merely that the Bible is a book consistently on Christ is not adequate. The Bible is on Christ in God’s economy. God’s economy is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity in Christ by the Spirit into us that we may have Him as our life, nature, and everything. When we experience this, it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). This is the tree of life. (Life-study of Job, p. 51)

　　The regenerated ones, who are divinely human and humanly divine, spontaneously become an organism, the Body of Christ, which is the church of God as the new man in God’s new creation to carry out God’s new “career,” that is, to build up the Body of Christ for the fullness, the expression, of the Triune God. This fullness as the organism of the Triune God will consummate in the New Jerusalem. The Bible begins with God in His creation as the initiation and ends with the New Jerusalem, which is the mingling of the Triune God and all His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite people. The New Jerusalem is thus a constitution of God with man to express God for eternity.

　　To see this is to have an overview of the entire Bible. In our reading of the Bible, we need to focus our attention on God’s eternal economy for the divine dispensing. Unless we know God’s economy we will not understand the Bible.

　　Christ is not only the center of the Bible but also the centrality and universality of God’s economy. It was in this economy that Christ became incarnated, that He went to the cross to pass through crucifixion, that He came out from death and entered into resurrection, and that in resurrection He was begotten of God to be God’s firstborn Son and as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit to regenerate all His believers to make them the same as He is in life and nature that they might become His brothers and the sons of God. These sons plus the Firstborn all become a new man, with Him as the Head and with the church as His Body, to carry out God’s eternal purpose to consummate in the New Jerusalem.

　　If we see this revelation concerning God’s economy, then we will be able to understand the book of Job. Job suffered God’s stripping and consuming, but he did not understand what was happening to him. Job could say, “You have hidden these things in Your heart; / I know that this is with You” (Job 10:13). He knew that God had a purpose, but he did not know what God’s purpose was.

　　Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, were in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even though Job was on a somewhat higher level than his friends, he and they were still in the same realm. God was trying to rescue them from that realm and put them into the realm of the tree of life. The first thing God had to do was to strip Job, consume him, and tear him down so that he would become nothing as a person under suffering. This became the base for God to rebuild Job with the Divine Trinity, that Job could be a new man, a part of God’s new creation, to fulfill God’s eternal economy for God’s expression. (Life-study of Job, pp. 58-59)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 9, 31

«　WEEK 1　DAY 4　»

　　Phil. 3:8 But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.

　　2 Cor. 4:16 …Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

　　Suffering is the lot of all the inhabitants of the earth…. Some people imagine that if you believe on the Lord and live in His fear, you will be immune from all ills, yet numbers of Christians are grievously afflicted, and some who live in vital touch with God are in constant suffering. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” p. 17)

　　The suffering [in Philippians 3:8] is for the gaining of Christ. (Life-study of Job, p. 119)

　　[Looking into this problem of suffering], in my early days … I was only able to draw these conclusions from my studies: (1) Man is prone to error; therefore, suffering is necessary for his correction. (2) Suffering is needful if we are to comfort others, for only they who themselves have suffered can truly help other people. (3) The discipline of suffering is essential if we are to acquire endurance [cf. Rom. 5:3]…. (4) Suffering is inevitable if we are to be molded into vessels that will be of use to God.

　　These four conclusions that I came to in my youth are all correct, but they come short of the mark. The ultimate object of all suffering is the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose. That purpose has been revealed to us through the Scriptures, but it can be realized in us only through suffering. And its realization involves an experiential knowledge of God not only as the living God but also as the God of resurrection.

　　Every saved person [has] some evidence that God is the living God, but comparatively few of the saved realize that the God who dwells within them is the God of resurrection. If the distinction between the living God and the God of resurrection is not clear to us, many problems will arise in our experience as we seek to press on. Let me explain this distinction quite simply.

　　With the incarnation a dispensation began in which God and man, man and God, were blended into one…. But the incarnation is only one-half of the mystery. The other half is the resurrection….The incarnation brought divine content into human life; the resurrection brought human content into divine life. After the incarnation it was possible to say, “There is a man on earth in whose life there is a divine element.” But not until after the resurrection was it possible to say, “There is a God in heaven in whom there is a human element.” That is the meaning of the resurrection.

　　But why do we stress the distinction between the living God and the God of resurrection? It is because while the living God can perform many acts on man’s behalf, the nature of the living God cannot blend with the nature of man. When, on the other hand, the God of resurrection works, His very nature is wrought into the nature of man…. Even when the living God has performed some act on your behalf, after that act as before it, He is still He, and you are still you. His working on your behalf does not impart anything of His nature into you. The living God can work on behalf of man, but the nature of the living God cannot unite with the nature of man. On the other hand, when the God of resurrection works, He communicates Himself to man by that which He does for him.

　　The primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man [cf. 2 Cor. 4:16]….Through a process of outward decay, an inward process is taking place that is adding a new constituent to our lives. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” pp. 18-20, 24)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” ch. 3

«　WEEK 1　DAY 5　»

　　Gal. 3:14 In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

　　5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

　　6:18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

　　Galatians 3:14 shows us that the Spirit is the aggregate, the totality, of the [all-embracing and all-inclusive] divine blessing of the gospel given to us…. Such a blessing includes redemption, regeneration, the divine life, righteousness, justification, sanctification, transformation, and renewing. Today in our Christian life we Christians should just deal with this Spirit. Since we have life and live by Him, we also should walk by Him (Gal. 5:25; Rom. 8:4). We should do everything and be everything by the Spirit, with the Spirit, in the Spirit, and through the Spirit.

　　Galatians 6:18 indicates that the Spirit as the all-inclusive grace is with our spirit. We must treasure the two spirits in Galatians—the divine Spirit as the aggregate of the divine blessing to us and the human spirit as the receiver, the container, the keeper, of the divine Spirit. Thus, we need to take care of our spirit, doing everything by exercising our spirit. Then we will experience the divine Spirit living in us, making His home in us, and transforming us. (Life-study of Job, p. 94)

　　The divine Spirit lives in us to pray, to read the Bible, to speak God’s word, to love our spouse, and to visit sinners for the preaching of the gospel. Such a living is the mingling of the processed Triune God with the regenerated tripartite man. This is the divine revelation in the New Testament as the answer to the sufferings of Job and to the great question concerning God’s purpose in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people.

　　We should not take any action apart from the all-inclusive Spirit. We should not face any situation or meet any need apart from the Spirit…. We need to practice this in our married life. If you desire to say something to your spouse, you should wait for a period of time, until you have the assurance that your speaking is the move of the Spirit.

　　Acting hastily is the living of a descendant of Adam. Those who live in that way are quick to speak, to act, and to deal with others. We must remember that, as Christians, we are not the only ones moving. On the contrary, we are moving in another One’s moving, and another One is moving in our moving. This kind of life is a constituent of the church. This kind of life keeps the Body of Christ in a living condition. However, not to move in the Spirit’s move and not to have the Spirit in our move will bring death into the church.

　　Revelation 22:17 does not say that the Spirit speaks with the bride; rather, this verse says, “The Spirit and the bride say….” The two speak together. This indicates that we should not merely speak with the Spirit; we and the Spirit should speak together. If this is the case, our speaking will be living and full of impact. The way we must take today is the way of moving in the move of the Spirit and of having the Spirit moving in our move.

　　In the New Testament we are charged to be regenerated by this Spirit and to receive the divine life through this Spirit. Then we need to live, to walk, by this Spirit, and we need to experience Christ, to enjoy God the Father, and even to enjoy the fullness of the Triune God by doing everything according to the Spirit. As long as we do everything according to the Spirit, we can experience Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension with the outpouring of the Spirit. This will cause us to be the church of God, the Body of Christ, the new man, and the organism of the Triune God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. (Life-study of Job, pp. 94-95, 131, 71-72)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 12, 16, 24, 28

«　WEEK 1　DAY 6　»

　　Job 42:5-6 I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen You; therefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.

　　Matt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

　　Job did not understand the reason for his sufferings, but today we know the reason. It was true that Job suffered, but his suffering was allowed by God for a purpose. God wanted to take away all his successes. Job was very successful, both materially and ethically. He had attained to a very high degree of perfection and uprightness. That was his integrity, and he was proud of it…. However, God took these away in order that Job would pursue God Himself instead of other things.

　　Eventually, Job recognized that he had known God only “by the hearing of the ear” (Job 42:5a). He had heard about God and he had believed in God, but he had never seen God. However, through all the strippings and consumings, the time came when Job saw God (42:5b).

　　[In Matthew 5:8] seeing God is a great reward in the kingdom. According to the clear view in the New Testament, to see God is to receive God into us. If seeing God is merely an objective seeing of God and nothing else, that means very little. But seeing God is to receive God, and this means that God comes into us as our element to renew us, to transform us, because God’s coming in adds the divine element into our being. This divine element works on us and in us to renew us, discharging all our old element. Eventually, our entire being becomes new. This is transformation. (Life-study of Job, pp. 116-117)

　　[According to 2 Corinthians 3:18], first we behold God, that is, see God; then we reflect Him and are transformed. In our seeing God we are being transformed into His glorious image, from one degree of glory to another. This is from the Lord Spirit.

　　The God whom Job saw was also the Spirit, but at that time God was still in His original state. God had His divine element with His divine attributes, but He did not have anything related to incarnation, humanity, and human living….The God whom we are looking at today is different, for He is much richer in His ingredients [cf. 2 Cor. 3:18]. Hence, the more we look at Him, the more we receive His ingredients into our being as our inner supply to work on us, to discharge the old, and to make us new. This is to transform us into God’s image.

　　Our way of looking at God today is altogether a matter in the spirit. The God whom we may look at is the consummated Spirit, and we can look at Him in our spirit. Sometimes we are too busy or too careless to take the opportunity to look at the Lord. In our morning watch, even if only for fifteen or twenty minutes, we have time to be with the Lord, time to remain in the Spirit. At such a time we may pray-read His word, talk to Him, or pray to Him with short prayers. Then we will have the sense that we are receiving something of God’s element, that we are absorbing the riches of God into our being. In this way we are under the divine transformation day by day.

　　Our Christian life is a life not of changing outwardly but of being transformed from within by having the divine element added into our inner being to replace our old element. This is altogether by our looking at the processed and consummated God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit.

　　By reading Job’s final word in Job 30, we can realize that Job and his friends were walking on the way of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were not in the realm of endeavoring to see God in order to learn of Him and especially to receive Him so that they could be transformed with His element and essence to be made the same as God in life and in nature. We all need to see a clear comparison between the way taken by Job and his friends and the way revealed in the New Testament. (Life-study of Job, pp. 117-118)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msg. 21; CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Christian Life,” ch. 15